Guest Blog

A Tour of an Urban Farm in Chicago

By Joan Engebretson

I always look forward to Open House Chicago, an annual weekend-long event organized by the Chicago Architecture Center in which a wide range of sites around the city open their doors to visitors. This year I visited the Farm on Ogden, a multi-use facility on the Southwest side managed by the Chicago Botanic Garden and Lawndale Christian Health Center (LCHC).

Among other things, the site has:

• AquaponicsAn indoor aquaponics and fish hatchery operation, where lettuce and other produce is grown in water tanks that are fertilized by the fish.

• An outdoor Youth Garden, where about 50 teenagers each year learn about food production and gardening while working in the garden and getting paid for it.

  Youth Garden

• A community market space, where food grown on the farm and other produce is sold.

• A VeggieRX program that provides free vegetables to low-income people that have been recommended through the health center. I sampled some of the roasted root vegetables from a recipe using ingredients offered through the program and they were delicious.

The youth garden has been on the site for 20 years. The hydroponic operations, the VeggieRX program and the market space are newer.VeggieRx Program

The place has a real sense of community. Later this month it will host a free screening of the documentary film “Raised Up West Side – Change the Narrative and Change Lives” that has won numerous awards. As the film’s promotion says, the film exposes “the deep-seated segregation, food insecurity, and mass incarceration that continue to shape these predominantly Black neighborhoods.” And the farm succeeds in solving many of these complex problems by growing food. www.raisedupwestside.com.

Joan Engebretson, when not writing, spends time cooking and gardening in Chicago.